Ch 68: The Breaking Point

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Lora sat in her office, staring at the dim holoscreen in front of her. The energy reports for the last quarter were laid out in meticulous detail, but all she could focus on was one glaring problem.

Kael.

He had been too efficient.

No malfunctions. No losses. No unexplained power drains.

For most cities, this would be a miracle.

For Gron? It was a disaster.

The disguised power siphons—the hidden energy flows that kept off-the-record projects running—were now exposed.

Not by leaks.

Not by sabotage.

But because Kael had unknowingly erased all the distractions that kept them hidden.

And now, people were asking questions.

Lora had worked with him for two years. In all that time, he had never once mentioned where he came from. He had no past, no roots—just an endless hunger for knowledge and a quiet, dangerous patience.

And now, she was realizing something else.

She had no idea what Kael would do if pushed.

Lora rubbed her temples as the door slid open.

Kael stepped inside, calm as always, his mind already somewhere else.

"You're early," she said, forcing her voice to stay neutral.

"I had nothing else to do," Kael replied, setting a small metal case on her desk. "Finished the stabilization matrix for the East Grid. Power variance is down to 0.3%."

Lora exhaled through her nose. That was the problem.

"Kael."

He tilted his head. "Yeah?"

She hesitated. Then:

"Do you ever stop?"

Kael blinked, genuinely confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, do you ever hold back? Do you ever think that maybe things are supposed to stay broken?"

Kael frowned. "That's a stupid way to run a city."

Lora sighed. "You don't get it. This city runs on layers, Kael. Some things need to stay hidden. If you fix too much, you start exposing things people don't want exposed."

Kael folded his arms. "Are you telling me to stop doing my job?"

"I'm telling you to be smart about it," Lora said, leaning forward. "Do you even realize what you've been fixing? What you've been revealing?"

Kael hesitated.

He was smart, but he had always been too focused on the work itself.

Lora pressed on.

"You've uncovered at least seven black sites in the last six months. You just didn't know it. And now? Now I have people knocking on my door, asking questions I don't want to answer."

Kael was silent for a moment. Then he asked,

"Who?"

"People who can make us both disappear," Lora said flatly.

Kael didn't flinch. If anything, there was something unreadable in his expression.

Then he gave a slow, cold smile.

"Then maybe they should disappear first."

Lora felt a chill run down her spine.

For two years, she had known Kael as an engineer, a technician, a problem-solver. He was driven, obsessive, and sharp—but he had never seemed dangerous.

But the way he had just said that—so casually, so matter-of-factly—it reminded her that she didn't know who Kael actually was.

She had always assumed he was some runaway intellectual, someone who had gotten too curious and fled whatever place he used to call home.

But now she wasn't so sure.

Kael had always been obsessed with understanding how things worked.

But now?

Now, he had just shifted his focus.

From technology.

To the system itself.

He wasn't just fixing circuits anymore.

He was going to tear apart the very foundation of Gron—to see what was underneath.

Lora had tried to contain him.

Now?

Now, she could only hope that Kael wouldn't burn the city down with him.